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Adapting the social defeat paradigm developed by one of our groups (1), O. Berton and colleagues comprehensively evaluated the role of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in mouse social stress (“Essential role of BDNF in the mesolimbic dopamine pathway in social defeat stress,” Reports, 10 Feb., p. 864). Although their molecular data convincingly link chronic social defeat to activated mesolimbic BDNF, their behavioral and pharmacological data might benefit from some reconsideration.

For example, social avoidance in 10-day stressed mice that lose BDNF (interpreted by Berton et al. as depression) more correctly resembles “social anxiety” in the original model, where evident depression developed only after 20 days of social stress (1). Unaltered anxiety (versus depression) cannot be confirmed by 2.5 mg/kg chlordiazepoxide, a dose insufficient to affect anxiety in most published studies using C57BL/6 …